Garage Security?

macrumors 6502

Neighbors had their garage broken into recently, seems like a thief used a remote and drove around until one opened. Our apartments do not have rolling code protection openers.

Odd theft, they stole the keys and apparently opened one car, but didn't take anything else.

I've contacted our apartment owners to ask what they intend to do to ensure our security, but it has me wondering what I should do.

Replacing both garage door openers myself with rolling code protection ones would cost over $300. A video surveillance system would be cheaper, could hook it up to a computer to watch it at work, and record the last few days so anyone who did come in would be on video.

Either option has me spending money on something when I feel the apartment should upgrade the garage door openers...given the state of repair of the entire facility, I highly doubt they would even consider it.

macrumors regular

When I lived with my folks, I had a 63 Ford in high school. I would put a bolt in the garage rails so the door would not open (Might be a problem in an apartment). You could only come in through the house.

macrumors 603

Some relatives of mine were recently robbed in a similar way. They accidentally left the garage door opener in a car they had left parked in the driveway. Some people went all through their neighborhood breaking into cars to see if they had openers inside, and when they found my relatives' opener, they went in the garage, into the house, took all the keys and whatever laptops and stuff were nearby, and left with all three cars.

Their opener has an option that it can only be opened with a typed code from outside, or the button inside. Less convenient, but more secure.

I imagine you could also add a switch between the opener and the power main, operable by a remote control (I'm sure there's something like this on the home automation market), giving you a sort of two-factor authentication, where you'd have to switch on the power to the opener before being able to activate it. Again, less convenient but more secure.

In either case, always keep spare keys in a secure location inside the house, and keep the door from the house to the garage locked.

The real problem is the thousands of dollars of sports equipment that is easy to steal and easy to dump at pawn shops, not so much the car. The thieves seem anxious to take easy, small stuff.

Apartment protects itself from liability by having a page in the contract saying garages are for cars and only cars...

Click to expand...

Is this a garage that is common to all tenants, or does each tenant have their own garage and opener?

If it's a common garage, then if the landlord won't install the fancy opener thingy - then maybe the tenants could all chip in. Sucks for the tenant who moves out 'cause the new tenant gets the fancy shmancy opener for free.

If this is a garage exclusive for your use, install the fancy shmancy opener, but then take it with you (restoring the old opener in it's place) when you move.

Don't know if either of those are practical.

I'm glad I live in a community where we don't need to worry about such things. Many long-time residents here are very comfortable leaving their keys in the ignition.... regardless of whether they're at home or parked in town. I've still got the big city in me (a little bit) so I take the keys with me when I'm town... I even sometimes remember to lock the doors. At home I'm constantly forgetting to take the keys out of the car...

But I did come from city where car breakins were very common, so I know how you worry. No broken windows, but a couple of times the door lock was jimmied.

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